Brooklyn model is awarded $125,000 after her photo was unknowingly used in an HIV ad campaign with the words 'I am positive'
- Avril Nolan, who does not have HIV, had no idea her image was going to be used
- She only found out about the ad after seeing a friend post about it on Facebook
- Nolan had originally posed in the picture for a 'street-style' magazine in 2011
- It was later sold to Getty Images, which licensed it to Division of Human Rights
A New York model has been awarded $125,000 in damages after her photo was used in an HIV ad campaign with the words 'I am positive'.
Avril Nolan, who does not have HIV, had no idea her image was going to be used for the state's Division of Human Rights 2013 campaign.
Nolan, who lives in Brooklyn, had posed in the photo for a 'street-style' magazine in 2011.
Her image was later sold to Getty Images and licensed to the Division of Human Rights for the ad, according to NBC New York.
New York model Avril Nolan has been awarded $125,000 in damages after her photo was unknowingly used in an HIV ad campaign with the words 'I am positive' (pictured)
The ad ran in four print publications and three online publications and was seen by a number of Nolan's co-workers.
Nolan said she was 'completely shocked' and 'sick to the bottom of her stomach' when she found out about the ad from a friend's Facebook post.
She was also worried that her exes and future boyfriends might see the ad, as well as her employer and clients.
The model, who also works in public relations, said a co-worker came up to her, gave her a hug, and then said: 'Oh, will I catch something?'
Another co-worker sent her a 'Happy World AIDS Day' email, according to the New York Post.
The ad ran in four print publications and three online publications and was seen by a number of Nolan's co-workers
Court of Claims Justice Thomas Scuccimarra ruled in Nolan's favor due to the fact that the ad did not contain a disclaimer clarifying that she was a model.
Scuccimarra also found that Nolan had suffered 'emotional distress and humiliation during the immediate aftermath of the publication and for some time thereafter'.
'Ms Nolan did not give permission for the use of her photograph, taken in an entirely different context, and apparently thereafter sold,' he wrote in the ruling.
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Nolan originally sought $1.5million in the lawsuit, but Scuccimarra ruled that there was no basis for an award of future damages - noting that she was not in counseling and had a successful vintage clothing business.
He stated that the $1.5million award would be more appropriate for someone who was falsely accused of being a 'drug-dealing, alcoholic prostitute'.
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